Ride to Tuktoyaktuk, Canada: Part One

Day 7: The Yukon Territory Experience

Today was a whirlwind of new information and sights in and around Dawson City.

You’ll never guess what the weather did first thing this morning? It rained on me AGAIN!

I’m starting to consider offering myself as a drought elimination consultant because everywhere I have ridden the last week it has rained hard on me. It’s uncanny!

I needed to get some time in riding the Africa Twin to better know how it will handle on the Dempster. Wade suggested I go take in a tour of the famous Dredge Number 4 which is out on Bonanza Creek Road outside Dawson City on a dirt road.

The dirt road is very pale and mixed with sand. Kind of unusual and being that it poured rain, quite slippery. A good warmup for what the Dempster could be like if bad weather follows me up there. The Africa Twin I’ve been loaned is clad in Mitas tires featuring a very aggressive tread pattern.

Wade warned me that since they are brand new out on the asphalt they tend to wander back and forth at higher speeds which took a little getting used to after riding the rock solid Ninja for the last 6 days.

I’m especially pleased with how the tires gripped on the slippery sandy road out to the Dredge Miner. I had no traction issues whatsoever even though the cars I came across were gingerly driving along in front of me. I was able to pass them confidently and now I feel ready to tackle the big bad Dempster for sure. I wonder how much they will wear after 1000 miles of nasty road.

I stopped along the Bonanza Creek Road at Claim 33 museum to take a look at all the old mining equipment, vehicles and buildings they have there. Very cool old gear.

I also went into the gift shop and bought myself a little piece of Yukon Gold that was mined at Sulphur Creek by Karl Knutson and his crew from the TV show. If you want to buy affordable gold, this is the place to do it as there’s no middleman inflating the price.

The tour of #4 was fascinating to a mechanic like me. I arrived about 40 minutes early so I spent the time taking photos and reading all the available information about this apartment building-sized contraption sitting in front of me.

What an incredible machine it was! Apparently, with only a crew of four, it could mine on average 200 ounces of gold every day when in operation. Its best day was about 800 ounces.

If you watch the TV show Yukon Gold you know that even with modern machinery the goal for the crews mining in this area is about 200 ounces per season, not per day.

The operation is straightforward and the design was seen first in New Zealand by the people who brought the technology to the Yukon.

Dig a big hole where you want to start mining and fill it with water for the Dredge to float on. On the front, there’s a huge arm that can be lowered down into the water with about 75 buckets attached to it that run on a conveyor system to scoop ore up.

It then brings it back into the Dredge and dumps it into the trommel which uses water and gravity to separate the heavier gold from everything else. The unwanted rocks, dirt, etc get ejected out the back of the trommel onto another conveyor which spits it out the back.

This is how all those mounds of rocks were created I talked about yesterday. Really ingenious considering the time period was the early 1900s and that the Dredge ran on 2300 volt electricity.

At the end of the tour, the guide whipped out a half ounce gold nugget attached to a 1-ounce chain and passed it around. The weight of the gold was very apparent to me while handling it. It’s 19 times heavier than an equivalent sized volume of water.

That afternoon I went on a boat tour with Fishwheel Charter Services and Captain Tommy Taylor. He was raised on a small island just down river from Dawson City.

He owns the only legal fish wheel to catch Salmon within the Yukon River. The fish wheel spins on its own, powered by the current in the river to catch salmon and other swimmers. The fish swim into the basket which scoops them up and as it comes up in the air, gravity causes the fish to fall out the side of the basket into a small holding net. This clever design was originally a Chinese one that the Natives saw and started building in this area.

He showed us around the river near Dawson City and talked about how the Chum and King Salmon come up the river to spawn and then die near Dawson City. He and his family depend on the fish harvest for food and income, so he’s gotten good at it. He can catch about 50 salmon each day or more when they’re running.

We checked out the log cabin he moved from Dawson City out to the island nearby his Salmon Fishwheel and he invited us in to enjoy some “Eskimo donuts” his wife had made. Tasty stuff, similar to bannock, but with sugar on it.

We boated past a small settlement called Moosehide that is mostly only accessible by boat, but there is a small trail leading to it from Dawson City. The trail can’t be used to bring goods in though and I thought how this is similar to Tuktoyaktuk’s situation up until now with the highway open all the way.

After the tour I went back to the Downtown Hotel where I’m staying until tomorrow when we leave for Tuk. It’s one of the oldest hotels in town.

The floors squeak when you walk on them and much of the same woodwork, wallpaper and of course the famous Sourdough Saloon from a hundred years ago is still a part of it.

After having supper together with Wade, Tammy, Matt and another couple who will be riding up the Dempster with me, I decided to go check out the SourToe Cocktail ritual to see some people join the exclusive list of individuals who have had a severed human toe touch their lips while drinking a shot of at least 40 proof.

I burst through the swinging doors of the saloon a la old Clint Eastwood movies and looked around at the patrons inside.

There was a fellow by the name of Dwayne Kelly tickling the ivories directly to the right of the entrance with great vigor and ability.

He turned and shouted to the patrons for the next requested song to be given to him. He boasted having a repertoire of over 1200 songs including some originals. I was about to suggest Billy Joel’s “Pianoman”, but someone else loudly shouted “Star Wars” first. I thought, surely they must be joking, but Dwayne swung around and proceeded to plink out a perfect rendition of the theme song we all know very well. Good stuff! Dwayne is some kind of northern Mozart from what I could tell.

There was a lineup of people on the second level about 40 strong waiting for the “Toe Captain” to induct them into the bizarre SourToe Cocktail club.

I went in for a closer look and wasn’t disappointed by the enthusiasm of the patrons and the Captain about going through with this somewhat disgusting ritual. The toe was dark brown and a second toe to the big one judging by the long, narrow shape.

These gruesome, amputated digits are donated to the Saloon’s collection by people who lose them for whatever reason (typically frostbite, common enough up north).

Legend has it the first toe was from a Dawson City local named Louie Linken whose toe was frozen after his foot went through the ice in a rum-running incident and then chopped off by his brother Otto. Otto placed the toe in alcohol to preserve it and allow them to commemorate the escape from authorities. Out of that somehow was born the ritual and club, which according to the board in the saloon is just under 79,000 people strong at the time of this writing.

The original toe from Louie is long gone and word has it other toes over the years have “worn out” and disappeared (swallowed once or twice!). If you swallow the current one there is a warning posted of a $2500 fine. Putting it in your mouth alone voids your membership in the club as well.

Person after person sat down with their shot glass ready for a mummified toe garnishing to be added by the Captain. The captain took a $5 donation from each person then held up the dark brown toe to be kissed before being dropped into the drink while the Sour Toe pledge is recited by the Captain.

“You can drink it fast, or drink it slow, but your lips must touch that gnarly toe.”

I had a fun time helping out with the antics by taking pictures or video for people while they participated in the zombie toe barroom game.

I didn’t join the club myself choosing instead to remain a neutral observer at this point.

New members come from all over the world to do this believe it or not. I met people from New Zealand, the USA, Japan and France to name just a few. Some were nervous and just there for moral support when it came time for their traveling friends to take the morbidly-garnished shot, while others were trying to cut in line to get up to greet the Captain sooner.

What an odd, yet fun place this is and I’ve barely scratched the surface of things to see and do in this town. They’ll have to wait a week though as my journey to Tuktoyaktuk starts early tomorrow. This is it! The main reason I’ve traveled over 3000 km (1864 miles) so far.